Hello once again and welcome to the TNA preview spectacular. An odd thing happened last week when I came to the realization that I may be the only person in the world who really enjoyed last weeks show (in spite of the Trinity and hardcore garbage). TNA seems to be ready to embark on the storyline that I’ve personally always wanted to see done. Well…always is an overstatement. I’ve wanted to see a certain storyline done since Vince McMahon came on TV and said that the WWF was no longer going to “insult our intelligence” by pretending that wrestling was real. Of course he then preceded to insult our intelligence in an even worse manner…what with admitting that wrestling was fake…and then having people settle issues like racism and necrophilia by fake punching and fake kicking each other in a wrestling ring.

I’m speaking, of course, about Triple J. For those that need a quick refresher…the story is that Jeff Jarrett is using his political clout in TNA to hold down talent (D-Lo Brown and AJ Styles) and to keep the title on himself. This storyline (like pretty much all great storylines) stems from the reality of the fans reaction to Raven losing to Jarrett. I’ve often thought that this storyline would be the perfect vehicle for Triple H on RAW. It would give him some real heat, and an excuse to hold the title for a long time (like he’s doing anyway). The payoff is that whoever finally overcomes all of these obstacles and defeats him is a huge star.

Now…the main detractors to this kind of storyline will say things like “Shoot comments go over the heads of the marks”. That’s absolutely 100% true. I argue, however, that this is a good thing. Right now the pro wrestling audience in North America is split into two parts. There is the half that watches to be entertained, questioning little and accepting less as an answer. Then there is the half that watches and is more critical and searches out news on why and how things happen. What is the main problem facing pro wrestling today? You can’t please both. Well…you CAN please both but it’s far too hard and random to strive for. The Austin era combined all kinds of fans and drew tremendously, for example.

I don’t think it’s going to be possible to dumb down the smarts…but it is possible to educate the marks. You’ve already pulled the curtain forward far enough to peak the curiosity of half the viewing public…and divided your audience in the process. While the WWE desperately tries to seal the curtain shut and go back to the 80’s…half the audience can’t forget that they’ve seen the man standing behind it. In TNA that man’s name is Jarrett. The name of the NWA Champion also happens to be Jarrett. Hmmm…

I know some will think that it’s a risky venture…and if this was the WWE it may be just that. TNA, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same size (by far) or cross section of fans that WWE has. If you were to make an estimate of the mark to smark ratio watching WWE what would you guess? 60/40? 70/30? Now what would the same ratio be for TNA? 99/1? Outside of maybe some Nashville fans that show up to the arena for the weekly matches…how many marks are watching TNA? None? How would you even know about TNA if it weren’t for the internet? This is the storyline that TNA needed to try. If the ship is going to sink…let’s go out swinging.

Being a self proclaimed HHHater nothing thrills me more than seeing a storyline based on people’s perception of how Triple H is ruining wrestling for his own self serving purposes. The fact that Jeff Jarrett has far more control over TNA than HHH has over anything only makes the whole thing better. This guy calls the shots. Period. Most (almost all) of the audience knows this anyway. Not using that to your advantage seems like a waste to me. Let’s cross our fingers that this works out to be half as interesting as I think it should be.

Spotfest baby! Let’s break down the individual participants, shall we. CM Punk has been on the show more often lately and has looked good every week. Unfortunately D-Lo called him a jobber last week…so that’s not good. Kazarian I have never seen…and all I know about him is that he lost the WWA cruiserweight title to Chris Sabin on the same pay per view that Jarrett beat Sting (June 8 in the States I think). Matt Stryker I’ve never seen…but I’ve heard of him. Kid Romeo will be back for his third TNA appearance and I think he’s looked good both other times. Damien I don’t know. Johnny Swinger is best known as one half of Diamond and Swinger with Simon Diamond.

All that being said, I don’t know where this match came from. Kazarian and Swinger were both in the 4 way match with Sabin and Lynn over in the WWA…and Jeremy Borash said he thought that match stole the show…so I assume these guys are here on his recommendation. Punk and Romeo I understand and would like to see them get full time spots in the X division. If I’m not mistaken Stryker had a tryout match a long time ago…and here he is. Damien I still don’t know. How wonderfully random.

If you have to wonder what this match will look like…you’ve probably never seen TNA. This will be a spotfest…and it probably won’t have much heat since fans won’t know who half these guys are. That usually means they bust out big spots to get them going. I expect fun stuff.

Don Harris and Ron “The Truth” Killings vs. David Young and Tracy

The Asylum Alliance tournament (you know…the one with the wacky tag partners squaring off against equally wacky tag partners) is almost over. This is the first of the semi-final matches. It will suck.

Chris Harris and ??? vs. B.G. James and Konnan

Hey, B.G. James is back. Don’t shoot the messenger. If there is one interesting thing going on in this tournament (and I said IF) it is the way they are handling America’s Most Wanted. Two weeks ago, Storm and Harris defeated Styles and Brown to earn a spot in the tournament. Last week Storm was out with “personal reasons” or some crap and S.E.X. provided Harris with a tag team partner in Chris Sabin. Sabin and Harris won (and looked pretty good as a team) and that sets up this week’s dilemma. Who will Chris Harris choose? Well…I figure he’s going to choose Storm…but I find it interesting storytelling nonetheless. Oh…this match will blow no matter who his partner is.

Hard 10 Match

Participant…To be announced. Match rating…a DUD.

AJ Styles vs. D-Lo Brown

Here we go. Here’s a good one. The last three were bad…but this one is good. On the plus side the last three will all be short. This is to crown the #1 contender for the NWA title. Styles and Brown have spent the last several weeks having the best match of the night in tag action…but chose to break up last week. That makes this pretty interesting since they broke up to take a run at the big gold…and ta-da! I’ve been real impressed with Brown since these two started teaming…and I love Styles (in a manly way) so I am pumped for this one. I have no idea what’s going to happen. Either Styles wins or Raven causes a no contest. I don’t see Brown going over.

Jeff Jarrett vs. Glen Gilberti

The Gilberti train has run out of gas…and just in time for his main event! Jarrett wins…and possibly joins Russo in the process. Raven could get involved here too. I don’t think the match will be bad…but it will be severely overbooked anyway. Maybe they should have pushed Gilberti slower than this. Oh well.

There are quite a few people left in the dust at this point in time.

What will Raven’s role be?

Will the Kid Kash vs. Trinity freak show end…and can Kash recover?

Where’s Jerry Lynn?

XXX (Daniels and Skipper) are listed as being on the show in some form in the TNA preview…so hopefully they’ll have a match against someone. At this point not only don’t I care who they face…but they’re on such a role that I’m not sure it matters.

Bottom Line:

Jarrett vs. Gilberti should be decent until the run-ins…Styles vs. D-Lo should rock…6 man X match should be fun…hopefully XXX will compete…everything else is bad.

I’ll say one thing…after tonight we’ll have a far better understanding of who Jarrett will be putting over (that’s right…I said it) on the anniversary show. Raven? Styles? Brown? Oh my.